This I Believe

There is not one time that I don’t remember asking a question about something that confused or interested me. Questions engage people in conversations, to learn about another person, to find out what that person is all about. Both can build relationships and friendships all for the better. I am a person who thinks very logically and so if something doesn’t make sense to me, I wonder why it doesn’t. I ponder and ponder about questions that I struggle to answer, and these are the questions that really matter to me.

There can be general or specific questions, and some that will never be answered. The questions that cannot be answered either matter the absolute most, or, the absolute least. For some people, they won’t waste time in pondering these questions. These are the questions that come from God, the heart, and the unknown. But what are God, the heart, and the unknown? Some say God is all around us, living in us, and guiding us; while some believe God is an old man with a long white beard sitting on a throne. Or maybe, God, the heart, and the unknown are all the same thing. Do I believe God is sitting on a throne? No. But I do believe life is not a coincidence.

The unknown could be empty space in the universe, death, the mind, or the soul. The unknowns are continuous forever and ever, and one will never find what they really are because they are the unknowns. Death is inevitable and every person knows this, but what happens after death? I am not sure if I want to believe a book that was written 5,000 years ago. And yet, they knew as much about death as we know now; there is no coming back. But if there is no coming back, then where do we go? Do our souls and minds just die like our bodies? I will never know until I am dead. And death is the unknown that will then become the known, but I will not come back, so the living will never know. What if we have to live in hell for all of eternity or is there even such a place? This is the exact reason why some people are nice, because they don’t want to go to hell. It is not from the goodness of their hearts, but because they are afraid of what happens after death. If there is a God, I don’t think God would want this, but would want a heart that does good because it is the right thing to do. No other reason should be necessary. These unknowns cause wars for the soul reason that different Bibles teach different morals. It is good to ask questions, but to only ask questions when you don’t have an answer to that question. And when there is no answer, you can only ask questions. Asking them makes us wiser, open minded, and aware. I believe in asking questions, unknown questions, because they have yet to be answered and it causes me to explore who I am.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.